The Resources of Critique

Social criticism has enjoyed a renaissance in the past few years.
The anti-globalization protests at Seattle and Genoa and the great
marches against the war in Iraq have put contestation of capitalism
and imperialism back on the political and intellectual agenda. But
how does social critique situate itself philosophically today,
after the marginalization of Marxism and the impact of
postmodernism? In The Resources of Critique, Alex Callinicos
seeks to address this question systematically. He does so, in the
first part, by surveying some of the most influential contemporary
critical theorists Alain Badiou, Jacques Bidet, Luc Boltanski,
Pierre Bourdieu, Eve Chiapello, Jürgen Habermas, Antonio Negri
and Slavoj Žižek.

The limitations of all these theorists perspectives prompts
Callinicos in the second part of the book to outline an alternative
approach whose main elements are a critical realist ontology, a
Marxist theory of social contradiction, and an egalitarian
conception of justice. The main thrust of his argument is to show
that Marx's critique of political economy remains inescapable for
anyone seeking to challenge the existing world order but only if it
maintains an open but rigorous dialogue with other critical
perspectives. The Resources of Critique is, above all, a
contribution to this dialogue.

"Sharp, lucid and wide-ranging, The Resources of Critique
subjects modern political theory to the test of a robust
materialism, and in doing so constitutes a vital contribution to
such a theory in its own right."

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